Kentucky judge says part of death row inmate's lawsuit should continue, keeping executions paused

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A state court case at the center of Kentucky’s contentious dispute over using the death penalty has carried on for two decades, but had significant movement Friday when a judge dismissed several of the claims made by the death row inmate who filed a lawsuit.

In a 48-page order issued Friday, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd narrowed, but did not end, the long-running case of Ralph Baze and the Kentucky Department of Corrections.

Baze, 55, was convicted of killing a sheriff and a deputy in Powell County in 1992. A jury sentenced him to death two years later. He challenged his death sentence in court by filing a lawsuit that questioned the legality of several parts of Kentucky’s death penalty process, including defendants’ ability to meet with their lawyers, how quickly an IV can be inserted for execution and whether media can be present for executions.

Shepherd’s order dismissed five challenges to Kentucky’s execution regulations, while allowing four central constitutional claims to proceed through a discovery — and eventually — a trial. Allowing those claims to continue means Kentucky executions will remain on hold.

Shepherd is letting Baze continue with challenges that relate to compounded lethal-injection drugs, safeguards against executing an “insane person” and/or a person with intellectual disabilities, and a two-hour window for IV access.

Baze’s lawsuit calls into question the drug used to execute inmates, phenobarbital, and the specific compound version used in Kentucky execution protocols. Another set of claims takes issue with the protocols in place to determine a death row inmate’s mental capacity to understand that they are being put to death. Finally, one claim seeks to iron out the amount of time allowed to try to insert an IV for inmates, and when that process becomes cruel and unusual.

One of Shepherd’s main questions in allowing the lawsuit to proceed in part was whether Kentucky had proper guardrails in place to avoid executing someone who has an intellectual disability or has been deemed insane by the courts. Another question was whether death row inmates need to be able to understand that they were going to die.

Shepherd said that if his court dismissed the claims entirely, it would only lead to “an absurd and circular result of a death-sentenced individual.” Inmates facing the death penalty could litigate their case for an extensive period of time if Baze’s claims are not addressed.

“This would result in the exact opposite of what the Attorney General has repeatedly argued he seeks to achieve — a more expedited implementation of the death sentences,” Shepherd wrote.

Attorney General Russell Coleman argued that the civil case filed by Ralph Baze, sentenced to death more than 30 years ago for killing two police officers, has dragged on for too long.

“This lawsuit has always been about delaying lawfully imposed death sentences,” Coleman told the Herald-Leader in a statement. “After two decades of litigation, only a few claims remain. We remain steadfast in our efforts to bring justice to the victims of these horrific crimes.”

The Ralph Baze civil case

Baze was sentenced to death in 1994, two years after the killings. The long fight over the legality of Baze’s execution began in 2007, when the U.S. Supreme Court halted capital punishment nationwide as it considered the legality of lethal injection.

The Supreme Court eventually allowed executions to resume — and they did in some states, including Kentucky. But not for Baze, because his civil lawsuit was ongoing.

In 2010, Shepherd halted executions in the commonwealth as part of a ruling on Baze’s case at the state level. In halting executions, Shepherd raised concern about the state’s lack of an automatic stay for intellectually disabled death row inmates, and changes to lethal injection protocols.

Since that time, the case has taken on additional forms as the Kentucky Department of Corrections has tried to work to address the issues outlined by Shepherd more than a decade ago.

If Shepherd did dismiss the decades-old claims, it would have cleared the way for Coleman’s effort to reinstate the death penalty.

But David Barron, the attorney representing all death-sentenced individuals, said the continuance of certain claims allows the state to address risks in Kentucky’s protocols that could lead to botched lethal injections.

“The court’s ruling removes the last impediment to moving forward with discovery and then resolving the remaining claims through a likely bench trial,” Barron said in a statement to the Herald-Leader. “We look forward to establishing Kentucky’s execution protocol does not comport with constitutional requirements and to changes being made so that everyone can be assured that any future execution is carried out constitutionally.”

The death penalty in Kentucky

Just months after he took office in 2024, Coleman filed a motion asking the Franklin County Circuit Court to reverse its prior decision and end Kentucky’s ban on capital punishment.

Coleman argued that amended regulations were published by the Kentucky Department of Corrections the same year he took office that ensured the state is in full compliance with Shepherd’s 2010 ruling, and the judge’s earlier concerns are now moot.

Last year, Coleman sent two letters to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear requesting he sign a death warrant for Baze and allow an execution date to be set.

But Beshear denied he could sign a death warrant. He said the state lacked access to the drugs necessary to carry out a lethal injection and also needed further clarification on Department of Corrections protocols.

In June, the attorney general joined a 16-state coalition in a letter that asked the federal government to streamline the death penalty process.